


The Mission Report

by avrelia



Series: The World of Infinite Hope - canon compliant stories [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, May Maiko week 2019, lots of talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 12:31:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20507051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: It's been two years after they break up (in The Promise comics), and Mai and Zuko finally talk about what went wrong between them.





	The Mission Report

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story for the May 2019 Maiko week, with the prompt "ending", but I didn't like the result until now. 
> 
> It takes place about two years after events of The Promise, and about one year after my story "The Big Tour. Amazing adventures of Mai and Ty Lee." After that mission Mai wrote an official mission report that is being discussed here. I wanted to finish it first, but it takes longer than I want to finish, and connected mostly chronologically, so I decided to post this story now, as there would be no spoilers anyway. There are some small references to that story, but nothing substantial.

Zuko had a slight headache. Topknot was pulling at his brains, and the crown felt heavy and uncomfortable. As soon as he was done with all the necessary business for the day, he asked not no bother him and went to his study to be alone. 

He took his crown off and stuffed it in his pocket, then undid the topknot, feeling aggravated and annoyed by everything around him. As soon as he was in his study, he fell on a divan face down and lay there for some time. He heard someone peeking into the room, but whoever it was they wisely left him alone. Laying face down was boring and didn’t help with the headache, either. Sleep didn’t come. Zuko got up and paced the room several times kicking unfortunate furniture on his way and feeling stupid for doing so. He wanted to talk to someone and to be left alone at the same time. Finally, he walked to the bookshelf, pulled out a well-read copy of the Report out of it, plopped on the divan again, and started reading somewhere in the middle. 

An hour or two later, a familiar voice called down. 

“Zuko, are you rereading it again?” 

He looked up. A Kyoshi warrior was standing at the door. “Hi, Ty Lee! You on duty today?” 

“Yes, and your servants asked me to check on you. They are worried but don’t want to disobey your order. Being your bodyguard also means calling for a physician when you are sick but too stubborn to admit it.”

Zuko winced. “I am not too stubborn to admit it. I was hoping the headache will go away by itself. Don’t call for anyone yet. Sit with me for a bit, please.”

“Okay,” Ty Lee came closer and perched on the divan’s back, while Zuko sat up leaving more space for her. 

“How many times have you re-read Mai’s official report on our Earth Kingdom mission? It’s been a year since we’re back, and the report looks as if it was read every day since.”

Zuko smiled at her. “It’s very… engrossing?”

Ty Lee snorted. “It’s about a third of what happened there. Only stuff relevant to the mission. The best is obviously left out.”

“Why? I’d love to read it.” Now Zuko sounded petulant even to himself, but he had a headache and didn’t care.

“Because.” Ty Lee rolled her eyes at him. “It was our adventure. You, of course, are free to go and ask Mai yourself.”

He looked to the side. “She probably wouldn’t want to talk to me.”

“You’ll never know until you try. Stop abusing the official document. It won’t survive another year of rereading and you won’t get a new one.” Ty Lee was still rolling her eyes, but now she was also smiling, and Zuko decided to take it as a good sign. 

“Can you tell me anything that’s not in the report?”

“I can, but I don’t want to. And, just in case, I advise you not to pull rank on me.”

“Fine.” Zuko looked unhappily at the battered copy of the mission report and was astounded to hear Ty Lee giggling. “What?!”

“You look so ridiculous when you are pouting, Zuko!” She patted his back. “I’ll ask someone to bring you tea and some food and call for the physician. You try to get rest, and go talk to Mai.” After that she jumped down and left the room.

***

Two days later, Zuko stood in front of the flower shop where Mai worked. It was easy to avoid her now that her family didn’t live in the mansion near the palace. And they successfully avoided each other for the past year. He pulled his hood tighter around his face not to attract attention from other customers and went in. Mai and her aunt were behind the counter with the customers. Mai finished packing a bonsai plant for an older man, received money and smiled politely as he left the store, then turned to Zuko and greeted him in the same perfectly polite and impersonal voice.

“How can I help you?”

Zuko lost all the words he had. He wasn’t sure what he wanted and what to say, and had the disturbing sensation of being drowned in too many contrary feelings. So he stood there, gaping, feeling like the stupidest fish alive and trying to pull at least one appropriate thought out of the jumble. Mai’s aunt noticed the situation, and finishing her business with the customer in the cheerfully polite yet harried manner, said on her way leaving the room,

“I am going to close the shop for a little while, so no one will disturb your conversation, Fire Lord.”

When they were alone in the shop, Zuko finally managed to say something. “Hi, Mai.”

“Hello, Zuko. Want to buy flowers?”

“Eh, no. I want to talk. Official business. About your mission report.”

“It’s been a year, Zuko. Have you just now read it?”

“NO! I mean. I read it then, and I reread it occasionally.” Admitting that the report written by her in the dry, formal, but so unmistakably Mai’s voice had become his comfort read wouldn’t do him any favors, but what would?

“So? What troubles you, Fire Lord? The accounting department decided we blew too much money?”

“No, it’s all fine. Ty Lee mentioned you didn’t write down everything, and I thought maybe you could tell me more.”

Mai sighed. He missed her many sighs. This one was exasperated and sad. “It’s a mission report, not a memoir. I wrote everything pertaining to the mission and the budget money we spent.”  
“It still sounded like you had fun.” 

“Ty Lee got shot, we were in prison, fought many fights, did a lot of stupid things too embarrassing to remember. The fun… was in conversations in between all that. I am not re-telling you all the conversations.”

“Yes, of course. I wish I…” He wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to say. Or to hear from Mai. She noticed that, too. 

“What do you want from me, Zuko?”

“I don’t know. I miss you.”

She shook her head “You keep acting as if it was an unfortunate accident that broke us up – like an earthquake, or tsunami. It wasn’t.”

“I know that.” He started angrily.

“So do you know why I left?”

“I kept secrets...”

Mai roared in frustration. The sudden change from her blandly polite expression shook Zuko a little, it was so unexpected. “It was not about one secret or another. It was… You would come by and take me to a stupid picnic or another, or a walk or a date or whatever, and it would be nice. But then you would go back to your lonely work, and your lonely life, and I would be waiting for another pleasant date feeling like you are drifting away or closing me off, and I could see you be so tired and overwhelmed and way over your head, and I wanted to help. But you...”

“You were helping! I could rest with you!” Now, why did he say it aloud before realizing how stupid that sounded?

“I am not a bloody pillow!”

“I thought you don’t care about the politics and government things I was drowning in! It’s all the boring stuff for you!”

“I care about you!!!! Just how stupid you are?!!!!” Now Mai was plainly furious, and Zuko caught himself thinking how gorgeous she was. That was a wrong line of thought.

“I wanted to protect you.” And that was also the wrong one.

Mai stopped, crossed her arms and looked at him. 

Zuko dropped his hand he didn’t even notice he was holding up and made a choking sound. “Why didn’t you tell me all that then?”

“I tried.” Mai was looking at the bunch of fire lilies in the giant vase in front of her, and her words came out slowly, with effort. “I am not very good at talking about feelings. Some of it I only started to put in words now. Then I just felt the pain and fear growing with every day. It’s been two years. It’s not raw anymore, and I’ve been thinking about all that happened. A lot. And maybe I grew up a bit and got over some stuff.”

“Some stuff?”

“I was full of fears. And running away seemed like… a strategy.”

“Fears? I’ve always thought you are fearless.”

She laughed quietly. “I am so not. Spirits, people, your family, my family… I’m just good at pretending I don’t care.”

He badly wanted to pull her in a hug and tell.. he wasn’t sure what but something comforting. And kiss her. He managed not to move at all, and considered it a win. Mai hugged herself and glanced at him, as if she was having similar thoughts. 

“What were you afraid of?” 

“You as the Fire Lord. That as soon as you get taste of real power, you’ll…”

“Turn into my father?” he finished softly. “I am still afraid of it myself.”

“I am not, not anymore. I am sure you are going to mess up in totally different ways.” Now Mai was smiling at him, and Zuko felt hopeful.

“Mai, I wish we talked like this before.”

“Yeah, I wish you trusted me and yourself more. We are where we are now.”

“You think I didn’t trust you?”

“Not me, not yourself. I think we didn’t even know each other, not really. Other things were always getting in a way, and we hardly ever talked about anything.” 

“But,” Zuko started get angry, and feeling that Mai was right only fueled his anger more. “How can you say it? With everything we’ve been through?”

Mai shrugged. “Everything that we’ve been through pushed us apart as much as it pulled us close. I thought just being together would be enough. But it wasn’t. I am sorry.”

“I am sorry, too!” Zuko blurted angrily. He felt anger uncoiling in him, taking over. That’s the question again – what was he angry about and who was he angry at? He learned to ask himself that, but haven’t learned to answer satisfactorily.

Mai looked at him, again, with unreadable expression. “Ty Lee is my best friend since forever. Together we… It doesn’t matter. She is the most optimistic person I know. And I had no idea how much anger and misery she was hiding behind all that cheer until we spent several weeks together. That will never be a part of any report.”  
Zuko wasn’t altogether clueless. He hoped he wasn’t. “I am glad I got to read your mission report.” 

“Well, being the Fire Lord should bring you some benefits.”

“It really should.” He answered with a bitter smirk.

Mai smiled mischievously. “Wait, I have something for you.” She left and went upstairs and then reappeared with an old piece of paper. “Ty Lee and I found it in a remote village in Earth Kingdom and couldn’t leave it there.” She handed him the paper – it was a wanted poster with his and Uncle Iroh’s portraits. Two years on a wall didn’t do it any favors, but he still could see their faces clearly enough. Mai didn’t remark on his ponytail on the picture. Was it not that bad or did she not care? Zuko smoothed the paper over. In the middle of his forehead there was a small hole made by a knife or a similar sharp object.

“Why do I have a hole in my forehead?”

Mai shrugged. “I guess some people over there had some feelings about you.”

“Some people. Hm.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Zuko glanced at her. Mai busied herself with watering the plants and tidying the counter. The conversation was kind of over. 

“How are you doing these days, anyway?”

She looked back at him. “I am fine. I practice with the Kyoshi warriors, and help them train new girls. I sell flowers here. I do other stuff. Keep busy.”

“Can I buy flowers now?”

“No.” Mai’s voice became tired. “Every other guy buys flowers and immediately presents me with them. As if it is a cool and unusual thought. Don’t disappoint me.”

Figures. Another idea came to him. “Can I order a flower arrangement for my bedroom?”

“Sure, I’ll tell Auntie Mura, she’ll have your order ready tomorrow morning. She doesn’t trust me with important orders, says I mess up all the symbolism.”

“I don’t want any symbolism, just something nice to look at. It’s not like anyone but me is going to see it. Well, maybe chambermaids…” And after meeting Mai’s pointed look he realized the unfortunate meaning, “No! I didn’t mean!… they are cleaning room and stuff...”

He felt himself horribly blushing, but by Mai’s tiny smile he could see she was amused and glad, so it wasn’t a total loss. 

“So… I’ll send someone tomorrow to pick it up and pay if I can’t come myself.”

“Of course, Fire Lord. It will be ready.” Mai did a small formal bow, he bowed back and left, holding the old wanted poster. 

“That went really well.” Zuko thought on the way home. First real conversation with Mai in a very long time. She was right about them needing to talk. Even if it was about break up. Maybe they could talk more someday? Not about endings? It was good – to talk about break up. He didn’t realize how angry he was still. He didn’t realize how angry Mai was about it still. All the things they had said to each other – he felt they were too much for his head just now. But he had to do something about it. To understand, if he wanted them to talk again. And badly wanted them to talk again, and again. And again. 

***

Mai was standing by the counter still replaying the conversation in her head when Auntie Mura returned. 

“So, how did it go? Did Zuko buy any flowers?”

“No. I didn’t let him.”

“I am running a business, you know. We sell things here, and with money we get we pay for food and pretty things.”

“He ordered a flower arrangement for his bedroom instead. I promised it’ll be ready tomorrow.”

“Good girl! You can start working on it, then.” Auntie Mura smirked, and Mai felt annoyance at her aunt’s good cheer.

“Me? You never let me do them for customers.”

“You need to start some day, and this is as good an opportunity as any.”

Mai sighed grumpily and went to choose an appropriate flower pot.

**Author's Note:**

> If you’re wondering what flower arrangement Mai did, it was a cactus plant, of course. Something like that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebutia
> 
> Zuko loved it.


End file.
